One of our most common questions when building websites for our clients is how to price your services. In short, there is no perfect universal answer. It is actually going to be a combination of factors that is more dependent on how you plan on setting up your business and how much time you want to put into quoting.

What marketing does help you do is make sure it is displayed and communicated in the best way possible. Check out the example below pulled from a bookkeepers website.

Put yourself in the shoes of a business owner who dislikes accounting so much, they are willing to outsource it.

This list is overwhelming.

You are leaving it up to the business owner to decipher what they may need. YOU are the expert who is there to guide their accounting and it all starts with your website.

Below is the guide I walk through with each of my clients to help them discover on their own how they would like their services displayed and examples of each.

Pricing Your Services

Before we help you decide on how you want your services displayed, you need to have them organized. Ask yourself these questions before continuing:

• How do you structure your pricing? 

• Do you have hourly rates or flat fees? 

• Do you quote each client differently? 

• Are you interested in offering packages? 

List Prices By Services

One of the most straightforward ways is to simply list your prices online. Whether it is an hourly or flat rate, you can display your prices and let the viewer decide whether they would like to move forward.

Pros: This can be beneficial if you are just starting out and trying to figure out your pricing schedule. You can work out issues of underpricing, putting together packages, or your quoting process, all while having a simple and quick way to display your services.

Cons: If you have a lot of services, listing each one can be overwhelming for the viewer. Which is why we do not recommend this method. It leaves little room for adjusting prices if a client has particularly messy books or more advanced needs. Overall it can be confusing for the viewer and too much work for the accountant.

Packages + Add-Ons

If you plan on putting together packages, we recommend 2 - 4 and including add-ons for those one off projects that can be added onto any of the 3 packages. This can be ideal if you have your processes setup and do not want to spend much time quoting.

Pros: It can be very easy for visitors to view your services page and know exactly what they want to purchase. The layout is digestible for the viewer and gives you the ability to create easy processes for onboarding each client.

Cons: This can be a good place to start if you have these elements put together, however, depending on the types of services you offer, you may find yourself having to create custom quotes.

For example, one package may offer reconciliations of up to 5 bank accounts. If a client comes to you and they only have 4, they may ask for a discounted price. If you agree, you can quickly find yourself creating custom quotes at which point the packages may not be as helpful.

Starting At

Organizing your services and setting a base price provides good flexibility if you need to increase the price for a particular client. It is also normal to be concerned whether visitors will leave if prices are not listed. Some may assume it is too expensive or not want to bother with reaching out.

This provides a baseline which helps visitors understand the range you operate within. 

Pros: It does not require you to commit to a price for every client, so you can increase the price if a client has more extensive needs. It also provides a price range for prospective clients.

Cons: Seeing a starting price for some potential clients may expect that price. If they need a big clean up, have a lot of bank accounts, or more extensive work, they may not be pleased at an increase in price. During your initial intake, it would be important to communicate that the price may be higher and why.

Request A Quote

This is going to be the best option if you prefer to create highly customized pricing based on the potential client’s situation. This can take a lot of time but there are tools that can expedite the process, like Hubspot or Dubsado.

Pros: Allows you to create customizable pricing if you have varied clients and is more likely to keep you in the green with each project.

Cons: You can attract those who are very price sensitive and price shopping. They may have a budget so far below what you quote, it could be a waste of time for both of you.

There is no universal answer that is going to be correct for every business. It is really going to be based one what you have established for your business while weighing the pros and cons.